Lot 221/208 Turpentine Road

Diwan QLD 4873

The approach to this property in the Daintree Rainforest is along a romantic forest-lined no-through road which rises up at the base of Thornton Peak. The temperature is more pleasant than in the Daintree Lowlands, being about 5 degrees cooler, due to the higher elevation. When you get out of the car at the property the trickle of a stream can be heard 50 meters away at the end of the road as well as the sounds of birds, animals and frogs in the forest. Often in the first hour after sunset the synchronized movement of lights emitted by fireflies is seen at the roadside and next to the house. The house is at the end of a 40-meter driveway made of river stones through the rainforest.

The property projects into the national park on the northwestern corner of private land in the region. There are 712 meters of boundaries with the national park of a total of 740-meter boundary, effectively increasing your backyard to include hundreds of acres of the national park and there will never be neighbors adjoining the property. Cassowaries, blue Ulysees butterflies, fireflies, a huge range of rainforest plants and animals and two streams are found on the property which is uncleared apart from the house site footprint which measures 20 X 12 meters.

The property has high environmental value due to the exceptionally high biodiversity on this property. The property is habitat for the endangered Southern Cassowary. Though only 1,200- 1,500 of these large colorful birds remain in the wild in Australia, two cassowaries were seen on the property by the owner who visited the house for short holidays.

This pole house is solidly built from wood and iron and is completely off-grid with a 30,000-liter unlined galvanized steel water tank on a high wooden stand, a Hills Solar vacuum tube hot water system, an ecological Biolytix wastewater treatment system and a 4.5kWatt solar power and battery system. It was built in 2010 using termite resistant hardwood timber which was transported from Western Australia. The galvanized iron water tank has no lining and the water inlet pipes to the house rooms are made from copper. No surfaces in the house have been painted to prevent mold and the release of synthetic volatile organic compounds (VOCs). There are glass skylights in the bathroom and living area which let natural light into all areas of the house. When the two trifold glass doors on two sides of the living area are opened on to the deck the living area is doubled in size. There is also a bifold glass window and a large paperbark wood breakfast bar providing access between the kitchen and the deck.

The Queensland EPA and the Dougal Shire Council has decided that no further clearing or building permits will be granted for properties in the Upper Cooper Creek Precinct due to its biodiversity. The Upper Cooper Creek Precinct is one of nine precincts described in the Daintree Futures Study conducted by the Rainforest Cooperative Reasearch Centre for the government of Queensland. In the Daintree Futures Study, it is stated that the current and proposed settlement rate in the Upper Cooper Creek Precinct is the same, 31% (See attached table of settlement rates in the nine precincts). Therefore, this house can never be replicated in this part of the Daintree rainforest even on existing public or private land. On the contrary the government of Queensland has bought back properties adjacent to lot 221 Turpentine Road and has incorporated them into the certificate of title of the Daintree National Park.

The cost of the building was approximately $600,000 in 2010, which included Town Planning, geophysical engineering and botanical surveys which were required by the Environmental Protection Agency. The land now has high value due to its location being embedded in and surrounded by the Daintree National Park, the extremely low if any availability of a similar block and the inability to obtain a clearing or building permit for land in this precinct determined by the Douglas Shire Council.

Features of the property

The 2.15-hectare property is situated in the Daintree Forest on the very corner of private land projecting to the northwest into the Daintree National Park.

Two properties on one side one on the other side have been bought back by the Queensland government and converted into National Park meaning that there will never be neighbors.

There will not be an opportunity to repeat the building of such a house again in the Upper Cooper Creek Precinct.